1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a connector and, more particularly, to a connector which includes a connector housing having a terminal locking lance for firstly retaining a terminal, and a spacer for secondly retaining the terminal, wherein the spacer is mounted into the connector housing from a direction crossing at right angles an inserting direction in which the terminal is inserted into the connector housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Thus far, as the connector described above, for example, a connector shown in FIGS. 15A, 15B, 16A, and 16B is known (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-336897 which has been invented by the inventor of the present invention). This conventional connector includes two primary parts, i.e., an inner housing 10 and an outer housing 20.
The inner housing 10 has terminal receiving chambers 11 and terminal locking lances 12. The terminal locking lance 12 locks the terminal 30 that is received in the terminal receiving chamber 11.
The outer housing 20 has a spacer 21, a front portion 22, and a pair of side covers 23, each of which is formed integrally with the outer housing 20. The spacer 21 of the outer housing is mounted to the inner housing 10 in a mounting direction Y2 which is at right angles to an inserting direction Y1 in which the terminals 30 are inserted into the inner housing. The inner housing 10 is locked with the spacer 21 in a provisional locking position and in a complete locking position.
A front portion 22 covers the front part of the inner housing 10 and has mating-terminal-insertion holes 24 which communicate with the corresponding terminal receiving chambers 11. The pair of the side covers 23 are two sides of the outer housing 20 and are provided perpendicularly to a bottom of the outer housing 20.
The pair of the side covers 23 have a provisional locking groove 25 and a full locking groove 26. A locking projection 13 is provided on a side surface of the inner housing 10. The provisional locking groove 25 retains ad interim the locking projection 13 while the spacer 21 is in the provisional locking position. The full locking groove 26 retains the locking projection 13 while the spacer 21 is in the complete locking position.
Unfortunately, since there exists a small gap (indicated by S in FIG. 15B) between the inner housing 10 and the outer housing 20 of the conventional connector (see FIG. 15B), an electric wire may be caught by a corner of a rear side of the side cover 23, causing the outer housing 20 to be turned up, which as a result may cause accidental exit from a state of locking between the inner housing 10 and the outer housing 20 and damage or breakage to the side cover 23.
In addition, since full locking between the inner housing 10 and the outer housing 20 is only achieved by the locking projection 13 of the inner housing 10 and the full locking groove 26 of the outer housing 20, the full locking is not sufficiently reliable. Consequently, when a force F is applied downwardly in the mounting direction Y2 upon an electric wire 40, there will be looseness (indicated by L in FIG. 16B) between the full locking groove 26 and the locking projection 13 or the inner housing 10 and the outer housing 20 may be accidentally taken out of the state of locking with each other (see FIGS. 16A and 16B).